1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to safety tweezers and to a method of safely removing bodily excretions. In particular, although not exclusively, the present invention relates to a pair of tweezers for the use of removing dried mucus from babies' nostrils.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mucus naturally collects in nostrils. Able-bodied people may remove this mucus by the blowing of their nose. However, some people, such as infants, cannot perform this task which thus makes breathing difficult. This can make sleeping and feeding difficult.
To overcome this, aspirators are known which a cater may use to clear the nostril(s) of the sufferer. It comprises of a tube which is used to suck out the mucus, the carer providing the vacuum with their own mouths and a filter acting to prevent any of the removed mucus from entering the mouth of the carer. An example of such a device is described in EP-A1-1474186.
Another method to remove mucus is by the use of a pair of tweezers such as described in JP-A-2005125032. This entails the insertion of both of the distal ends of the tweezers into the nostril, gripping the mucus between the distal ends and withdrawing them. However, it is relatively easy for the person holding the tweezers to push the distal ends too far into the nostril thus causing damage to the inside of the nose and distress to the infant.